Toshiba today brought HD DVD to the desktop PC with the announcement of the SD-H903A, a standard height HD DVD drive able to read and write to HD DVD and to standard DVD and CD discs.

Sample shipments of the new drive are scheduled to start this month.

The new SD-H903A integrates a blue-violet laser diode that can read and write to HD DVD-R discs and that offers support for high-density HD DVD-ROM discs, including high definition movie and video images. The drive also offers all the functionality of a super multi-drive, with high-speed read and write to all flavors of standard DVD and CD discs.

The new drive takes full advantage of the shared physical structure of HD DVD discs and standard DVD discs, which allows it to read and write to HD DVD-R discs, to read the diverse line-up of discs in the HD DVD-ROM disc family, including twin format disc and combination discs, and to read and write to standard DVD and CD discs, using an optical pick-up head with only a single objective lens.

The new drive is also fully compliant with the EU's RoHS directive, which came into force in July 2006.

Toshiba will feature the new drive at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007, in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 8 to 11, at the Toshiba booth (booth 12832 ) and the HD DVD Promotion Group booth (booth 7914) .